The elections for the Class of 2008 were held Friday, September 17 and results were announced later that night. Matt Milligan narrowly defeated Sarah DiNovo for Class President. Sarah Fram won the vice presidential election.
The four Senate positions were filled by Daniel Horvath, Csaba Vajtai, Kevin Morenski, and Julia Leusner. Only Daniel Horvath officially ran for office; the other three senators were write-in candidates with less than 10 votes each.
Only five of the eight Class Council positions have currently been elected into office. Charlotte Kaplan and Angelina Wagner each obtained over 340 votes to fill two of the positions; three more positions were filled by write-in candidates Michael Battista, Kyle Crawford, and James Rojette; each with two votes.
There were 58 write-in candidates with one vote, making it unclear who will fill the final three Class Council positions. Since one of the first tasks for the Class Council is to write a constitution, it is hoped the Class Council will be able to define its membership and resolve the issue through such means.
Jason Rokeach won an Independent Council position with 453 votes, far outpacing write-in candidates Michael Battista and Autumn Eberhardt, each with two write-in votes. Michael Battista also won a seat on the Class Council, which is not unprecedented for class elections.
David Scherzer, head of the Rules and Elections Committee, noted that 522 valid ballots were cast in this year’s election, giving the freshman class a turnout of approximately 47 percent. “This is slightly lower than recent years, though four years ago the numbers were significantly lower,” says Scherzer.
In past years, leftover GM Week mugs have been distributed to voting freshman, the lack of leftover mugs this year might have slightly influenced the turnout, according to Scherzer. This year was also the first year freshmen candidates were required to attend information sessions, helping to make the candidates more aware of the rules and their potential responsibilities.
Vice presidential candidate Zoey Wu commented that, although she “greatly enjoyed” meeting new people in her class, the short timeframe and lack of debates was a problem for her campaign. Scherzer commented on this, saying “The Union Constitution requires that freshman elections be held very early in the semester … so they aren’t left out of important decisions. Moving the elections back is a trade off between time to spread information and participation”
Newly elected freshman class senator Daniel Horvath said he was optimistic about the upcoming year. Horvath plans to be a “vociferous voice for [his] class” and said he is looking forward to working on the various Senate committees to better help the RPI community. The Class Council meets every Tuesday, and Horvath encourages freshmen to participate if they desire to better the RPI community or help out their class.
